trap | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

60 entries found.

c. 1600, "a fence of strong stakes," from French palissade (15c.), from Provençal palissada, from palissa "a stake or paling," from Gallo-Roman *palicea, from Latin palus "stake" (from PIE *pakslo-, suffixed form of root *pag- "to fasten"). Earlier in Italian form palisado (1580s). Compare pale (n.). Palisades in the military sense of "close rows of strong pointed wooden stakes fixed in the ground as a defensive fortification" is attested from 1690s. The Palisades for the trap-rock precipices along the Hudson River opposite New York City is by 1823.

wait (n.)

early 13c., "a watcher, onlooker," from Old North French wait (Old French gait "look-out, watch, sentry"), from Old North French waitier (Old French gaitier; see wait (v.)). Compare Old High German wahta, German Wacht "a watchman." From late 14c. as "an ambush, a trap" (as in lie in wait). From 1855 as "time occupied in waiting;" 1873 as "an act of waiting." From the sense "civic employee responsible for signaling the hour or an alarm by sounding on a trumpet, etc." comes the old sense "town musicians" (mid-15c.).

glebe (n.)

late 14c., "soil of the earth; cultivated land;" also "a piece of land forming part of a clergyman's benefice," from Old French glebe, from Latin gleba, glaeba "clod, lump of earth," possibly from a PIE *glem- or *glom-, which might mean "contain, embrace" or "ball," or might be two different roots. Possible cognates include Old English clamm "a tie, fetter;" Old High German klamma "trap, gorge;" Old Irish glomar "gag, curb;" Latin globus "sphere," gleba, glaeba "clod, lump of earth;" Old English clyppan "to embrace;" Lithuanian glėbys "armful," globti "to embrace, support."

Trappist (n.)

1814, from French trappiste, Cistercian monk of reformed order established 1664 by Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé (1626-1700) of La Trappe in Normandy.

trappings (n.)

late 14c., "horse-cloth," from Middle English trappe "ornamental cloth for a horse" (c. 1300), later "personal effects" (mid-15c.), from Anglo-French trape, an alteration of Old French drap "cloth" (see drape (n.)).

trapeze (n.)

swing with a cross-bar, used for feats of strength and agility, 1861, from French trapèze, from Late Latin trapezium (see trapezium), probably because the crossbar, the ropes and the ceiling formed a trapezium.

The French, to whose powers of invention (so long as you do not insist upon utility) there is no limit, have invented for the world the Trapeze .... [Chambers's Journal, July 6, 1861]

trapezius (n.)

muscle over the back of the neck, 1704, from Modern Latin trapezius (musculus), masc. adjective from trapezium (see trapezium). So called from the shape they form.

trapezoidal (adj.)

1796, from trapezoid + -al (1).

trapezoid (n.)

1706, "a trapezium," from Modern Latin trapezoides, from Late Greek trapezoeides, noun use by Euclid of Greek trapezoeides "trapezium-shaped," from trapeza, literally "table" (see trapezium), + -oeides "shaped" (see -oid). Technically, a plane four-sided figure with no two sides parallel. But in English since c. 1800, often confused with trapezium in its sense of "a quadrilateral figure having only sides parallel and two not."

trapezium (n.)

1560s, from Late Latin trapezium, from Greek trapezion "irregular quadrilateral," literally "a little table," diminutive of trapeza "table, dining table," from tra- "four" (from PIE root *kwetwer- "four") + peza "foot, edge," related to pous, from PIE root *ped- "foot." Before 1540s, Latin editions of Euclid used the Arabic-derived word helmuariphe, helmuaripha. As the name of a bone in the wrist, it is recorded from 1840.

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